To Storm or Fire
by THE s t a r s LOOKUP
Summary: "Well no wonder the Romans hate you, you hit Octavian with a Buick!" The Mark of Athena with a twist of epic proportions. Follow Annabeth as her plans to find Percy fail, Percy kicks a national monument and Leo sings Highway to Hell. And these are the seven that will save the world.
1. Chapter 1

_"Hello, you've reached the residence of Paul Blofis and Sally Jackson, we are unable to take your call at the moment, but please leave a message after the tone."_

Paul Blofis stood on the corner of the busy New York intersection. It nearly two in the morning, and pouring rain. He turned his head left to right, waiting for a break in the flow of traffic to cross the street.

Paul had been called to his brother's house in the middle of the night for an emergency. Of course, once Paul had arrived, everything was fine and John's arm had been bandaged up nice and tightly by the nieghbor and a lecture on the safe use of kitchen knifes had already occured.

John was a thirty two year old bachleor, the youngest and most reckless of the Blofis clan, and had somehow ended up as Paul's responsibilty.

Traffic slowed and the red hand turned into a white-blue walking figure. Paul crossed the street briskly, turning left on the sidewalk and walking past the local florist.

Paul cringed, remembering the painful memory.

_"Mrs. Jackson, would you prefer the roses or the water lilies?" the attendent asked._

_Sally's face, already so worn and wrought, crumpled. _

_Paul noticed, and answered for her. "I think the water lilies will be more suitable." he paid for the bunches, filling in the location of the memorial service, and led a torn Sally out of the shop._

That had been almost four months ago.

Now, Sally's face remained passive, with frown lines etched around her mouth, and sadness permeated in her eyes.

And her son remained gone.

Paul sighed, shaking his head and entered the apartment building, walking towards the elevator instinctively.

He pressed the number eleven and shook the water droplets from his sopping hair.

There was a ping, and the doors opened, Paul left the elevator and entered the hallway, following the hallway towards the apartment, the brass numbers hung with care on his doorway.

He turned the key, making a jiggling sound then the satisfying, clear cluck as the door opened up into the small entryway.

Paul shrugged his coat off, hanging it up on the rack. He made his way to the kitchen, expecting darkness and the hum of the fridge, but instead found a light on and someone's quiet breathing.

The apartment was otherwise completely silent. The traffic outside a distant hum of concentrated noise.

Paul's forehead creased as he entered the kitchen to find Sally in her bathrobe sitting at the table with her back to him.

"Sally? What are you doing up still? It's two in the morning, you should go back to sleep."

Sally didn't respond, didn't even awknowledge the presence of someone else in the room.

Worry began to rise in Paul's chest. "Sally?" He strided over to her, leaning on the table to get a better look at her face, try and catch her attention.

Sally's head rested on her clenched palms, her frantic eyes focused on a point straight in front of her.

Paul followed her gaze, resting on the nearly eight year old answering machine that sat on the edge of the square table, nestled in the corner admist salt and pepper shakers, a pad of post its, and some old letters.

The red light was blinking, a new message was still on the machine.

Paul reached over and pressed the play button.

There was the sound of the tone, and then someone's breathing came over the system. A long silence, and then, in a somewhat strangled and tired voice;

_"Mom. Hey, I'm alive." _a pause _"Hera put me to sleep for a while, and then she took my memory, and..." _the voice faltered, another break _"Anyway, I'm okay. I'm sorry, I'm on a quest-" _another pause, a slight groan. _"I'll make it home. I promise. Love you."_

Percy.

"Annabeth, what should we do with the guy's bag?" asked Jason.

"Torch it." Annabeth replied stonily. She studied the map, looking closely at the road depictions.

So far, this quest hadn't gone as planned. At all, to be honest.

At least, if it had, they sure wouldn't be stranded in the middle of nowhere, with a smoking warship in the dirt behind them.

They had only met one person in the three hours Leo had been attempting to locate the source of the crash, and he was some mortal that they had had to ward off. Of course, when they realized he was carting around a bag of money and questionable substances, they had been forced to reconsider their methods.

"Leo, how much longer?" Piper called.

"No idea. Still can't find the source." There was some clunking and rumaging around coming from the cockpit.

"Well, hurry up. I don't want to be stranded out here in the middle of the night.

The sun was currently beating down on them, and the hours until dusk were becoming numbered.

They had left in the Argos II at dawn this morning, hoping to enter the Roman camp by early afternoon, but around noon, Leo had announced that they were going to have to land because 'there's a hell lotta smoke coming out of the butt'.

With every passing minute, Annabeth grew more and more anxious to see Percy.

Percy. They were forty miles away from him. Annabeth drew in a long breath, closing her eyes and blowing it out. She had to focus on the situation at hand.

"Annabeth, you figured out where we are yet?" Jason asked.

She hesitated to answer. "I think... I think we're in Mt. Diablo park... based on our progress in flight and I think I've even been hiking here with my dad before. So we're about forty some miles from the city. If we were to set out on foot now, and catch a couple buses, we'd be there tomorrow evening."

"That might just be what we have to do." Chimed Leo. "Because I found the source..." there was some clanking, "and one of the gears is fried." He appeared out of the ship, holding up a warped and blackened chunk of metal. "So we're not going anywhere in Argie. Not until we can find a new gear to replace this one with."

Annabeth considered this. "Allright then. We'll just have to make it on foot. We can come back for the ship with some of the Roman campers and fix it when we get there. Pack up camp, and we'll move out."

"Roger." Leo agreed.

The four of them packed their backpacks with as much supplies they could fit, and set off through the forest to find a trail out of the park.

They eventually found a trail, hiking single-file along the narrow dirt. The only sound was Leo.

"On the road again..." he sang, embarrasingly off-pitch. "On the road again..."

"Leo, do you even know the words to the song?" Piper asked, annoyed with him.

"Yep. On the road again..."

"Dude, please, no more." Jason pleaded.

"Fine, fine."

Several minutes later, however,

"I'm on the Highway to Hell... I'm on the Highway to Hell..."

"Leo!" Piper exclaimed.

"Not the best song considering the irony of the situation..." Jason agreed.

It was then that the pocket of Annabeth's jacket buzzed.

Annabeth hardly got any calls, and it wasn't safe to use a cell phone in the middle of no where on a quest, so she had no idea who it was.

She checked the phone, and immediately recognized the number.

"Mrs. Jackson? What's wrong? Are you all right?" She answered the phone.

"Annabeth, it's Paul."

"Oh, hi Paul. Are you guys allright?"

"Yes. We're doing allright. Listen, Annabeth, I've been trying to contact you for a couple of days now..."

"I'm on my way to the promised land... I'm on the Highway to Hell!" Leo screamed.

"Leo shut up!" Piper and Jason said together.

"Sorry Paul, you were saying?" Annabeth said, rolling her eyes at Leo.

"Yes, Sally would have called you, but she's at camp right now, and then she called me to say that you had already left. Where are you right now?"

"Forty miles outside San Francisco." She replied, eyeing the bushes that were humming suspiciously.

"Okay, well I called about Percy..."

"Yes?"

"We've had some news, and-"

But Paul was cut off by the giant monster that jumped out of the bushes.

"Crap." Jason remarked, pulling out his sword.

Annabeth reached for the knife she kept in her waistband, ready to fight. It was a hellhound.

Jason took point, slashing the head of the beast, while Piper and Annabeth stabbed the sides, and Leo delivered a sickening pounding to the rear. The hound shattered into gold dust, and the four stood there, eyeing one another for a second.

Annabeth picked the phone up from the dirt. It was cracked in multiple locations, the screen black.

"Great." She sighed. What was the news about Percy?

"C'mon Annabeth, let's keep going. We can get a car once we get out of this park and then it'll be smooth sailing until we hit the city." Piper said.

"Right. Let's just keep going."

Annabeth should have known that something would have gone terribly wrong. After all, she was the one driving.

She wasn't nessicarily a terrible driver, but she wasn't exactly good. She had only received two lessons, both from Percy, and both cut short by ...other distractions.

But she had never expected to get held up less than a mile from the entrance of the camp.

None the less hit somebody.

But in her defense, the crazy guy was walking in the middle of the road, mumbling to himself.

And she had certainly never expected the guy to have been a part of the Roman camp.

The guy was currently laying there moaning in the middle of the abandoned road in the hills above San Francisco. He didn't seem to be too hurt, but he had been hit by a Buick going twenty miles an hour.

The Buick in question had been borrowed by the four demigods back outside the national park. They had driven it across the golden gate bridge into the city, which they traveled through to get to the hills. It had been somewhat hard to know that her dad and stepmom were so close. But it was even harder to remember being here with Percy on a number of occaisons. It was just plain weird to see the Alcatraz island where they had traipsied through several years before, when everything was different now.

But that wasn't even the wierdest thing.

"Hey, wait a second, is this guy wearing a toga?" Leo remarked.

"Not the time, man." Jason said, his eyes wide as Annabeth was trying to figure out what to do.

"Maybe we should just call an ambulence, or call my dad..."

"I don't see a phone around here, and I don't know if you realize this, but the guy looks like a nut." Piper said smartly.

"Dude, he's so wearing a toga. And check out this." Leo said, reaching for the brown paper bag the guy was holding when he was hit. He turned it over and out fell the remains of about twenty stuffed animals, including a panda pillow pet.


	2. Chapter 2

Something sparked in Jason's mind at the sight of the man in the toga lying in the middle of the road, and something fizzled when the ripped stuffed animals fell to the ground.

"Octavian." He breathed.

He looked up and met Annabeth's eyes. "Help me lift him up into the car. We're taking him with us. We're really close to the entrance."

"Wait, we're taking this nut job with us?" Leo asked, appalled.

"He's the key to getting into camp." Jason replied. "Trust me."

"Whatever you say Sparky." Piper said skeptically.

It was a tight fit, but everyone managed to squeeze into the car. Annabeth at the wheel, Jason navigating at shotgun, and the other three bodies squeezed into the back.

After about a mile and a half down the road, Annabeth parked the car as to Jason's instructions and got out of the car. Jason followed, helping Leo get Octavian out of the backseat.

"C'mon, it's just up this hill a little bit. They'll let us in with Octavian. Leo, help me bring him up the hill?" Jason instructed.

"Aye aye captian." Leo said, saluting Jason one handed, the other hand hoisting up Octavian's legs. His eyes wandered to the legs he was carrying. "Oh man." He winced. "No one should have to see that. These toga things are wierd. I hereby vow to never put myself through such humiliation."

Jason and Leo followed Piper and Annabeth as they led the way up the hill. They stopped when they reached the door nestled in the hill, with two teenagers decked out in Roman armor standing on each side.

"Halt." One of them, a guy, spoke. "Who are you, and what are your intentions?"

Annabeth took the lead, speaking. "We are here to return..."

"Octavian." Jason whispered.

"We are here to return Octavian to your camp and we are here to speak to your leader. We are also here for a camper named Percy Jackson."

Their reaction was so quick and instant, Annabeth and Piper didn't have time to react, and Jason and Leo didn't have time to drop Octavian and get their weapons out.

Annabeth and Piper were pressed against the wall by one soldier's long sturdy spear, and the other soldier was currently fighting Jason and Leo, who had dropped Octavian.

Piper was screaming, the spear was pressing into her chest painfully, and Annabeth was struggling silently.

Jason noticed Octavian's eyes finally drift open. He sat up, looking confused, then shouted at the four demigods.

"You! You all attacked me! Soldiers, I command you to seize them and bring them into the camp prisons to await trial for unrestrained attacking!"

Jason was so distracted by Octavian's actions and Piper's shouts that the soldier knocked him to the ground and bound him with tough rope that burned into his skin.

Once Jason went down, the soldier was able to take down Leo, whose toolbelt was still in his backpack.

"Jason!" Piper shouted, as she too was being bound.

This however, gave Annabeth the perfect opportunity. The gaurd that had tied up Leo and Jason was now trying to subdue a ferocious Annabeth. She spat in his face when he leaned over to sieze her wrists, then kneed him in the nuts.

I winced as the guy gave out a high-pitched yelp and sank to his knees. Annabeth pulled out her knife and knocked him over the head with the blunt of the blade, knocking him over.

She turned to face the other gaurd, but was instead faced by Octavian.

"Ah ah ah... not so fast blondie." He smirked as the first soldier plus two more back-up soldier came up behind Annabeth and seized her, throwing her to the ground and tying her up.

Annabeth struggled ferociously, taking out two more soldiers, but then several more arrived and she was outnumbered.

It was shortly after that that Jason lost conciousness.

The minute the soldiers reported the news to Reyna, she stormed out of her office, walking determinedly to the prison.

Once she reached the doors to the hall of cells, she spoke to the guard on duty there.

"I want to see the new prisoners."

The guard nodded and let her through. "First door on the right."

Reyna entered into the first cell to find a girl with a blonde ponytail, leather jacket, and rough appearance pacing back and forth between the stone walls.

"You." She spoke to the girl. "Come with me."

The girl nodded, and followed Reyna out the door and down the hallway into a new room, this one with a table and a chair.

"Have a seat." Reyna demanded.

The blonde sat, crossing her arms.

"I have some questions." Reyna began, glaring at the girl.

"So shoot." The girl said cooly.

"What's your name."

"Annabeth Chase."

"How do you know of Percy Jackson."

The girl hesitated, but remained silent.

"How do you know of Percy Jackson. I reccomend you tell me." Reyna said threateningly, pulling her knife from it's sheaf.

"How do you know of Percy Jackson?" The girl asked.

"Not important."

"I find that to be contrary." The girl uncrossed her arms and leaned forward on the table, palms down. "I want to know what you want with him."

"I'll ask the questions here, blondie." Reyna said menacingly.

"I'd ask that you don't call me that." Annabeth leaned further forward.

"I'll call you what I want, blondie. Now answer this question for me. Do you know where Jason Grace is?"

Something in the blonde's expression changed. She leaned back slightly. "Yes."

Reyna's eyes flashed dangerously at the girl's blase expression. "Where is he?"

The blonde merely shrugged. "I'll tell you if you tell me where Percy Jackson is... squirrel teeth."

Reyna screamed, exasperated.

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"Yes it does. Your front teeth are gapingly huge." Annabeth explained cooly.

"Just shut up and stay here." Reyna instructed. "This isn't the last you'll hear of me, but there's a bucket over there and you can sleep on the floor. This is your new cell."

"Whatever it takes, beaver."

"AGGGH."

And with that, Reyna left the room.

There was no way Annabeth was going to sit in this room for a minute longer and get questioned by this girl.

The minute the girl left, Annabeth stood up and went over to the walls, inspecting them for anything to lead her out. She found a crack in the wall about halfway through the look-over. She pressed against the wall, listening for anything suspicious.

There was a miniscule click, and the door popped out. Annabeth pulled it out of the wall, and slipped into an observation room that was currently empty. There was a hidden window that faced into the room and a couple of chairs around it plus several switches.

Annabeth walked into the hallway quietly, lurking around the corner and out the back of the prison building. She slipped into a group of people walking towards a main pavilion, blending into the crowd.

Hazel was in the medical tent, helping her friend Gwen replace a camper's bandages, when she heard the scream.

She had only heard Reyna scream on several occaisons, and when she did, it meant she was on a rampage, and was dangerous as H-E-L-L.

"THAT STUPID GIRL! HOW DARE SHE!"

Hazel stood up. "I better go find out what's going on. Sorry Gwen, but this sounds bad."

Gwen smiled. "I'm fine on my own, go ahead."

Hazel exited the tent. The noise was coming from the prison, across the street.

Hazel spied Reyna on the outside of the prison, yelling at a guard.

"HOW DARE YOU LET THAT GIRL OUT!" She screamed.

Heads turned up and down the street.

"Sorry?" The guard asked, confused.

"YOU LET HER OUT!"

"Who?"

"THE BLONDE PRISONER! SHE'S GONE! WHERE DID SHE GO!"

"She should be in her cell like the rest of the new prisoners." The guard answered, his brow creased.

New prisoners? Hazel was intrigued.

"WELL SHE'S NOT! I WANT A MEETING WITH THE REST OF THE COUNCIL RIGHT NOW!" she said, storming off towards the large official city building.

Hazel ran after her.

"Reyna!" She called. "What's going on?"

Reyna, not even looking at Hazel, replied. "We caught four prisoners yesterday. They attacted Octavian and then attempted to attack the guards outside the entrance and break in. One, a blonde girl, escaped."

"How?" Hazel asked.

"I have no idea. That prison is guarded twenty four hours a day. But Hazel, i need a favor."

"Yes?"

"Find me Percy Jackson."


	3. Chapter 3

"Reyna, are you sure about this? I mean, he's earned our trust by now, hasn't he? We can't just lock him up." Gwen asked Reyna.

"I don't care. I'm starting to think that he was against us all along. I think he's in league with our new prisoners. And they really can't be trusted. They viciously attacked Octavian and fought our guards, then one of them escapes, and is now running about camp, probably sneaking around attacking random people."

"Reyna, there's really no way to prove-"

"Well, it won't matter because when Percy Jackson comes into this meeting, which he may or may not do, as no one has seen him for days now- another reason to be suspicious -he will be seized by our top generals and brought into holding."

"Reyna, I really don't think-"

"Gwen, I've heard enough from you. Besides, it's time to start the meeting. I'm sure Percy will show up any minute now." Reyna said, standing to greet the assembled group of people gathered in the cavernous room.

Just then, the doors directly facing the main Praetor opened, and Percy Jackson slipped in.

Reyna spoke just loud enough for it to echo through the dull room. "Lituenents, seize Percy Jackson and bring him into a holding cell."

She adressed the boy with the shocked expression on his face. "Percy, suspicious behavior will not be tolerated here. It is fair of us to believe you have been working against this camp, and against these legions. We must withold you as to discern your loyalty to this camp."

"What?" He said, incredulous. "What suspicious behavior? I would never betray this camp. I don't break loyalties to my friends."

He tried to shake off the guards that were trying to take him down.

"Percy, it has come to our attention that you may have other loyalties that threaten the strength of this camp. So please, go easily, unless you want a certain blonde girl to be hurt."

He froze. Reyna smirked. She had hit her mark.

"What have you done with her?" He shouted, stock still as the Lituenents bound his hands together. "Where is she? Where's Annabeth?"

"Goodbye Percy."

"Reyna! What have you done t-"

He was cut off by the door shutting behind him as he was dragged out by the guards.

Reyna sighed, relieved at how well the whole ordeal went. She addressed the crowd to explain, but Percy's rant about the rampading blonde girl had already done it.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO O

Piper was woken up by the sound of some crazy dude on a rant.

"Tell me what you've done with her! You guys did something to her didn't you? You know where she's being held! Tell me!"

She rubbed her eyes and tried to work out the kinks in her shoulder that had occured from sleeping on the cold stone floor. She scanned the somewhat spacious stone room. It appeared to be some sort of cellar/prison, as there was no light from outside, not to mention the cool dampness the walls gave off. Except for the one torch light, the whole room was dark and cold.

She realized that her hands were bound behind her, the same rope tying someone else's hands. Somewhat familiar, scarred and thick-skinned hands. She turned her head slightly and realized someone had tied them back to back.

"Leo, are you okay?" She whispered.

He shushed her. "Something's going on above us. I'm trying to hear. Listen."

Piper was silenced. She listened for any noises. Shouts were spilling in from above.

"Where is she? Is she in here somewhere? Tell me! I bet she's in here somewhere! ANNABETH! Annabeth where are you? ANNABE- Hey! Watch where you're sticking that!"

"Will you just shut up?" muttered another voice, presumably the one that stuck something in a sensitive spot.

Piper looked to Leo with wide eyes.

Annabeth?

"Leo, someone's looking for Annabeth."

He nodded in consent. "Who do you suppose it is? You don't think it's-"

But Piper shushed him, listening to the voices continue.

"Listen, if you don't stop making a huge fuss, we're gonna have to make some threats we don't nessicarily want to make. And we will go through with them. So if you want your precious Anniebeth to remain unharmed, you better zip it." A guard spoke threateningly.

The other voice shut up pretty quickly, so that it was just the sound of footsteps growing slightly louder with every passing minute.

Piper then noticed something about the room. Streams of water were coming from the walls, converging into one steady stream of water along the center of the room, slowly moving towards the door. The water dissappeared underneath the crack of the only door in the room, and the streams continued, the noise of trickling water prevailing over the sound of the footsteps.

Piper elbowed Leo, and nodded towards the phenomenon.

His eyes widened. He let out a soft whistle.

"What the hell?" Piper breathed. But the next voice answered her question, and it was just behind the door.

"Allright Jackson. We don't want another peep out of you. As for precious Anniebeth, well, we'll just see how long it takes for her to crack." The voice chuckled, and there was the sound of stumbling feet, footsteps down the stairs.

There was some muffled cursing, and the door flew open. Two figures were grasping a third by the shoulders.

The third person was thrust down onto the hard floor. They didn't even flinch. The other two left the room, glaring threateningly at the slumped figure on the floor.

The figure rolled onto his side and remained there, breathing quietly, his back to the pair of demigods on the other side of the room.

"Leo, you know who this is, right?" Piper breathed as quietly as she could.

"Yeah, Bruce Willis."

She elbowed him in the gut.

He breathed out. "Kidding. Can we be sure?"

She nodded towards the trickling water, which was now forming a puddle around the figure on the floor. The figure was fiddling with his hands now, trying to undo the knot silently.

"Allright, help me undo these knots." Leo hissed.

Piper hesitated. "Just wait a second... Percy? Percy Jackson?" She said his name at a normal volume.

The figure stopped, sat up, and turned around.

"Who's there?" He asked, scanning the room and spotting Piper and Leo, shrouded in the darkness.

"My name's Piper, and this is Leo. We came from the Greek camp." Piper said, speaking clearly.

"The Greek camp? When?" He spoke, his voice somewhat gravelly from the screaming, but a warm and low voice all the same.

"Not sure how much time has passed, but we've been here for probably two days by now. We came here with our friends Jason and Annabeth."

"Annabeth Chase? You know Annabeth?" His bright green eyes brightened, looking hopeful.

"Yes, we've spent the last eight months or so at camp with her and Jason."

"Jason Grace? The one everyone here knows about? The one that went missing?" He asked.

Leo laughed. "I think you got it backwards. Jason came to the Greek camp with no memories, completely lost. You're the one that's been missing for eight months, bro."

Percy's brow furrowed. "I know. I only showed up here a couple of weeks ago. Didn't remember a thing. Where are the other two? Do you know where Annabeth is?"

"Well, we were all captured when we tried to enter the camp for some reason." Leo explained.

"We may or may not have hit this guy Octavian with a Buick." Piper added.

Percy grinned, chuckling. "Well no wonder you got captured by the Romans, you hit Octavian with a car!"

"But anyways, we were all knocked out, and I just woke up to your screaming, so I don't know where either Annabeth or Jason are at the moment."

Percy cursed.

"Allright, well, let's get out of here." he said, determination taking over his features.

He quickly got up to his knees, and pulled apart the knots that were holding his hands together, the water puddle beneath him shrinking as he absorbed the strength.

"Whoah." Leo remarked. "You got some serious skills with water, man."

Percy smirked. "Thanks."

He came over and began to untie the rope binding us together, but he froze at the sound of a girl's scream.

"Annabeth..." He whispered, panic overtaking his composure.


End file.
